Salesforce has named Steve Corfield its new channel chief as current channel chief Tyler Prince prepares to depart later this month.
Prince, whose formal title is executive vice president of worldwide alliances and channels at San Francisco-based Salesforce, confirmed his departure in a post on his LinkedIn.
“After nearly a decade with Salesforce, I’ve decided it’s time for a change—I’ll be leaving the company later this month,” Prince said in the LinkedIn post. “It’s always hard to find the right moment to make a change, and this was a difficult choice because of the relationships I’ve built with colleagues and the amazing partners in our partner ecosystem.”
A Salesforce spokesperson confirmed Prince’s departure and Corfield’s new role in an email to CRN.
“We’re grateful to Tyler Prince for his many contributions to Salesforce and for driving significant growth in the Salesforce partner ecosystem,” the spokesperson said. “We wish him the very best. Steve Corfield, EVP of Global Alliances, Channels, and Emerging Products, will now be leading our ecosystem and partner teams, and will focus on further accelerating growth through our partners.”ADVERTISEMENT
Corfield has served as Salesforce’s executive vice president of industry sales and CRO for global commerce since February 2021, according to his LinkedIn account. He is based in the U.K.
He has been with Salesforce for about eight years, starting in 2015 as senior area vice president and head of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Commerce Cloud.
CRN has reached out to Prince and Corfield for comment.
[RELATED: Salesforce Layoffs Appear To Hit Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau]
Gabriel Romero, chief marketing officer and global head of alliances for Denver-based Salesforce partner AllCloud— a member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500—told CRN that Prince did “a great job” as channel chief and that he looks forward to working with Corfield.
Romero said he hopes “to see them continue to be partner-first because they do have a strong partner ecosystem.”
“And as they continue to grow, I think keeping partners top of mind and keeping that partner-first mentality would be the ideal situation,” he said.
Just as the economy has prompted more customers to look to AllCloud, Romero is hopeful that Salesforce’s leadership sees the benefits of relying on the channel as a way to save on hiring more sales and support employees in-house.
“We’re seeing our customers rely on us in times like this to help them navigate the Salesforce system and help them save costs, and I think Salesforce having a similar mentality where they’re relying on their partners to help them bring the expertise that’s needed for the clients and help their clients continue to grow on Salesforce—that’s what I hope will continue,” he said.
Salesforce Faces Changes
Prince’s departure comes amid major personnel and partner program changes at Salesforce.
Another Salesforce channel executive, former MuleSoft channel chief Dan McAllister, posted on his LinkedIn account to say that he is now senior vice president of alliances and channels at automation vendor Boomi.
Three months ago, Salesforce announced layoffs of about 7,000 employees. The vendor has also had to work with activist investors seeking a larger profit margin from Salesforce.
Salesforce also saw the departure of Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor this year, who has started an artificial intelligence company with a former Google executive. Slack CEO and co-founder Stewart Butterfield also left Salesforce this year. Salesforce purchased Slack in 2021 for about $28 billion.
About five months ago, former Tableau channel chief Julie Bennani departed the company and Salesforce announced a combined partner program with Tableau and MuleSoft.
The nascent partner program of Salesforce subsidiary Slack was combined with Salesforce’s in March 2022, with Slack channel chief Richard Hasslacher reporting to Prince.
Hasslacher’s LinkedIn account still lists his title as vice president of global alliances and channels at Salesforce subsidiary Slack. CRN has reached out to him and Slack for comment.LEARN MORE: Cloud Channel Programs | Cloud Platforms | Cloud VARs | Cloud Software | Enterprise Applications | SMB Applications
Wade Tyler Millward is an associate editor covering cloud computing and the channel partner programs of Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat, Oracle, Salesforce, Citrix and other cloud vendors. He can be reached at [email protected].
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